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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 13, 1995)
EDITORIAL LTD salary dispute not right for ballot It's not often that citizens have the chance to vote on a proposal to cut thousands of dollars of existing spend ing However, when the union representing the Lane Transit District employees tries to cut the pay of the LTD general manager, it s obvious that something more than budget cutting is intended. Someone's out for revenge. A petition has boon circulating for several months that would cut nearly $30,000 from the pay of the LTD Gen eral Manager Phyllis Loobey. Plans for the initiative were to Ik* tiled at lame County Elections late last week, with a vote possible by September. The initiative is wrong for the same reason that Hal lot Measure 8. a measure to cut state contributions to the pension plans fur state employees, was wrong Citizens do not fully understand why an official is paid a certain sum of money and will nett discover the truth in a heat ed political campaign. Salaries of public officials should ta* decided by the agency or legislators, but don't belong 00 the ballot. LTD serves among other places the second-largest city in Oregon. To he able to recruit and retain qualified and experienced personnel, LTD must bo able to offer its executive staff competitive salaries However, the issue goes beyond cost-cutting The motives of the union trying to cut the salaries of high level LTD employees must be questioned. Some who support the initiative claim executives get bettor benefits than lower-level employees. What could be wrong with this? Executives, who generally have more responsibilities and experience than other employ ees, generally get paid more and warn more benefits. It is impractical and idealistic to think that all of I.'l'D's problems would be solved if the executives were treated like lower-level employees. It seems that there is a fair amount of friction between the union representing LTD employees and the LTD administration If there are problems between the union and the management, they should be settled by those two groups. No purpose is served by taking the issue to the voters and asking them to do the union's dirty work Fortunately, the LTD administration is fighting back bv supporting a bill in the Oregon Legislature that would prevent citizens from changing salaries of public transit employees through the initiative process. By passing House Bill 3218. legislators would take the first step to keeping salaries off the ballot, where they don't belong in the first place. The childish game the union is playing only helps to increase tension between the two groups and in the end everyone loses Citizens don’t fully know why this measure is being proposed. Don't drag the public into the squabble by asking citizens to i ut the general manager's pay. 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Da***" htew*fOOm . 3 u iifNNM Ottloi 34*55M OtapMry A^veftiiiag Ciatartiad AChwwng 34*0712 >46-4343 ******* ...WAIT A MlNOTE_ OJON'T W§ WIN? ■ LETTERS Inappropriate We found the advertising sup plement promoting pro-life to l»> inappropriate and offensive We don't think the Oregon Daily Emerald should distribute such propaganda We believe in free speet.h. hut a 12-page paper devoted to pro-life without intel ligently expressing the views of those who support choice is insulting Fare Musser Art History and three co-signers Cold-hearted Does tlte Constitution have to mandate something basic like affordable housing until we a<. ept it as human rights? Why tan other civilized countries do it (Austria)' What is America? A "deiiHH cm v" — not retogriizablo which tramples that right and has turned cold-hearted and mean spirited The |>oor deserve better, especially the workers. The U S minimum wage is ridiculous and Congress is fulh aware that workers end up under the poverty level and in need Haven't any politicians ever been poor in their lives or are they all bom on the manor and now- have illusions of grandeur* How long can we go on falling over the homeless and see whole families "tamping" in their cars' I hey have lousy jobs (if any) anti cannot make it They need hous ing. not ridicule and persecution It all startl'd with Reagan, who let the wealthy and the corporations off from (laying their fair share of taxes. at the same time raising defense spending and going over board with crazy schemes like Star H ors, He Balancing the bud get be< ante impossible then as it is now — no matter what the Gingrichers promise We are not broke and tan well afford building low cost housing for our people. Eugene is going about it in a peculiar way; the city says they have "nomecha nism to make developers include low cost housing in their plans It is successful in other communities, so why not start to w rite it in? We cannot continue to build only luxury homes while tearing down Ama zon housing with nothing to replace it The University does not have any building plans ready, vet it feels compelled to raw the complex right now! Tins is unhealthy lor a college town and divides the communi ty into ru h and pix>r Then then* is the NIMBY effei t. which implies that oil poorer people are criminals ana drug addicts (not the rich?}. Mm all the bigots and their kids remain wealthy and in no need of sympathy Hilde K Cherry Eugene Keep Amazon I am a World War II veteran and native Oregonian who would hove been unable to attend college had it not been for Amazon Student Housing. As a long-time conservative Republican businessman. I believe in fiscal responsibility and social programs that pro mote self-reliance I haven't heard any good reasons for destroying Amazon, a self-sup porting public housing resource that s helped thousands of Ore gonians like mvseif. ! believe the poor maintenance and neglect of Amazon by the University in ns ent years is rep rehensible and worthy of the cur rent investigation I read the State Audits Division is currently con ducting but it does not justify demolition Mv own recent vis it to Amazon and the fact that dif ferent developers stand ready to move and rehab Amazon build ings on other sites have lead me to conclude the buildings are structurally good enough to live in and repair right w here they are. 1 observed the fine old growth wooden floors we enjoyed are still in the apartments And many folks may not remember that half the complex was rewired and their foundations and roofs replaced in the early lftHOs Why on earth would we be destroying state property that still has so mud) use for the less advantaged among us and rebuilding them with what young folks won't be nble to afford? It's unfair to take away the opportunity for access to higher education through Amazon low cost housing that people like me have used for almost 50 years Woody Cowan Eugene Override As an alumnus of the Univer sity of Oregon ('84). I am alarmed at the recent vote to defund OSPIRG. The Student Senate should override this ridiculous decision. If the Student Senate allows OSPIRG s funding to be cut, it will be ignoring the will of those 65 perc ent of students that voted last year to continue a long tra dition of supporting OSPIRG Those who oppose student fees to support OSPIRG should cam paign against it in the next stu dent election that will consider the matter. As a student. I appreciated the many benefits OSPIRG produced, such as the Renter's Handbook whic h 1 used to confidently and succ essfully assert my rights as a tenant with a negligent land lord OSPlRG's legal information was critical As a student and alumnus ! Ixmefit from the Citizen’s Utility Hoard, which has saved all Ore gon ratepayers, including stu dents, millions of dollars in excessive charges that have been refunded by utilities Most importantly, OSPIRG empowers many students to learn about and engage in the democ ratic: process. This is a critical les son in civics, a subject that high school curricula has all but aban doned. To defund OSPIRG will further disenfranc hise students I urge Student Senators to over turn this outrageous and foolish decision to defund OSPIRG. which continues to operate on behalf of Oregon students in a multitude of ways. Cl. Orsinger Eugene ■ LETTERS POLICY I hi' Oregon Daily Emerald will attempt to print all letters containing comments on topics of interest to the University community. 1 he Emerald reserves the right to edit any letter for length or style
